Field
Embodiments generally relate to browsers, and particularly to rendering of content in web browsers.
Background Discussion
Browsers are used to access web content or locally stored content. A user can interact with a browser through a user-interface to direct a browser to different content areas. Content areas may contain text, audio, video and other forms of content delivery. Content requested by a user through a browser needs to be rendered for display so that the user can view the content using a display device such as a monitor.
Frequently updated content areas can include video, browser plug-in content or any other multimedia content. When rendering frequently updated content areas on a web page, the frequently updated content areas are rendered over the content (e.g., HTML content) of the web page. This mode of rendering is generally referred to as a “windowed” mode. In the windowed mode, frequently updated content areas (e.g., videos or animations) are rendered with no compositing, i.e., the video and animations do not blend in with web page content. To allow compositing of video and animations with web page content, web page authors use a “windowless” rendering mode. In the windowless rendering mode, video and animations can visually blend with web page content.
Both the windowed mode and the windowless mode have their disadvantages. In particular, the windowed mode is undesirable because it limits design flexibility of a web page author. For example, web page authors cannot overlay pop-up menus above a windowed video. The windowless mode is undesirable because rendering frequently updated content in this mode needs additional copies of the frequently updated content's individual frames to be made. Furthermore, complex animations and high definition video content do not perform well in the windowless mode.